I know it might seem like I sit at home all day long, drinking beer and updating The Blarg, but the truth is I spend much of my day writing.

Lately, most of my writing has been on long-form projects. Because of this, I sometimes write a short (most times comedic, other times not so much) to break up the monotony of those longer projects. But while these shorts are fun to write as an exercise, nobody ever really gets to read them.

To remedy this, I’ve decided to share them here. I’m doing this for two reasons:

1. I like to share! That, and it’s better than having them sit on my computer.

2. It’s my hope that someone might be inspired to actually do something creative with them. Want to film one as a short? Awesome. Interested in animating one? Go for it. Feel like performing one live onstage? I dare you. All I ask is that you give me credit where it’s due, and (if possible) send me a copy of the final product.

The nineteenth of Shady’s Shorts is called “This Is Where I Get Off.” Unlike all of the previous shorts, this one is not a comedy. It’s a dramatic short, and based on something that really happened once.

I know everyone’s been all like, “Oh, my dad is the best,” and, “No, my dad is the best,” today, and I’m all like, “HORSE SHIT! Because my dad is the best!”

I tried to find this awesome photo of us wearing 3D glasses while watching Creature from the Black Lagoon together, but it’s buried somewhere in nearly a hundred photo albums, and so you’ll just have to settle for this.

That photo was taken at my christening (yes, I was once a good little Christian boy) on October 24th, 1976, and from what I can tell it’s the first photo of us together (at least based on the photos I have).

This is a good one, too.

That photo was taken on Easter in 1981, which just so happened to fall on April 19th that year. It was also my dad’s 28th birthday.

Those horns in the background are currently hanging in our dining room.

Anyway, Happy Father’s Day to the best dad a balding, 30-something man who swears like a sailor and acts like an 8-year-old could ever have!